The Speed Light In The Studio - Fujifilm EF X-500 Makes A Debut

The use of speed lights in indoor situations is sometimes looked upon with condescension - there are so many dedicated strobe units that run off power packs or as monoblocks that the studio shooter comes to think of that as the only legitimate way to proceed - how very limiting this is....

I decided to wring out the new Fujifilm EF X-500 speed light by making it do what my normal Elinchrom EL250 and EL 500 lights do - make artificial sunlight for my model car dioramas. This is pretty stiff going as the Elinchroms - and any other dedicated studio strobe systems - have the advantage of lots of light shapers and dedicated control systems.

In the case of the Fujifilm I elected to use it to simulate street lighting on an industrial site. This is because of the small nature of the flash tube in the housing - it can achieve far sharper shadows than the larger tubes and reflectors used in studio strobes. The fact that I had only one flash to illuminate the transport yard was made up for by use of white Foam-Core sheets as reflectors. Steve Sint is emphatic in his books about the use of single light sources and reflection boosters.

Connection between the camera near the model and the Fujifilm EF X-500 up on a light stand like a street lamp was achieved with one of the Captur sets from the shop. The one I have is a non-TTL version that sends a radio signal from hot shoe to hot foot. The fact that the hot foot has a tripod thread in the bottom means you can rig the thing up anywhere that you can sling a 1/4" bolt.

Not surprisingly, it works...and the shadows cast from the model edges are sufficiently hard and sharp to match in with the scale of the scene. People have an instinct for shadows that even they might not realise - they can zero in on false lighting even if everything else is perfect. It is the same with their ability to see whether a person in an image is real or just a scale model - it takes a master miniaturist to fool the human instinct for a face.

The Fujifilm flash can also be utilised with modifiers like the Mag Mod diffusers and gels. It is a tight squeeze to put the rubber belt on the removable bezel, but once on there it need not be taken off. I elected to warm up the scene for a late afternoon look with some of the orange gels that clip onto the basic Mag Mod set.

But how can you tell where the flash is going to go before you shoot it? After all, that is the great selling point of the studio strobe systems with modelling lights - you can position the things precisely and look at the shadows as you do. Well, the Fujifilm flash has an LED panel under the main flash head that can be switched on independently of the flash tube. It has a considerable range of brightness that is controlled on the back screen and as long as the flash head is pointed forward, it approximates what the discharge will do.

I used it to determine where the street light would flood in through the overhead skylights of the Mangina Transport before I triggered them off. A little long exposure made sure that the shop lights would also register. If you look carefully you will see that the floor in the MT shop is clean...but this will change very shortly. I used to work as a labourer at a construction site and can testify that repair shops dealing with earthmoving equipment are rarely clean...

Verdict for the EF X-500 in a studio situation? Good on-site substitute for the Elinchrom EL250. It will make photography at exhibitions a lot easier.

Photokina 2016

Here it comes, folks. The biennial German trade fair, Photo Kina, for all things photographic. Clatter down off the fire-step into the dugout and hunker down...expect gas...

If you are an fan of the forums and the rumour sites you will know exactly what the new gear coming out will be - and I'll bet you have debated it at length at your camera club... championing the brand name or system that you own over all others whilst covertly calculating how much you'd get as a trade in if you swapped to something else. The answer to that is simple; not enough. But that won't stop you...

If you have wangled a leave pass and a European plane ticket and a fold-up cot in the corridor of some German hotel, you can be off this coming week to the show with the gleeful anticipation of a dose of jet lag, beer lag, and sore feet at the end of it all.

The smug superiority that you used to be able to exhibit when you came back is a little dimmed these days as most of the big exhibitors hold press conferences that go world-wide in a flash. You won't be able to bring back secret world-shattering news as it will have preceded you by days - but you can bring back brochures, pamphlets, trade samples, souvenir pins, throwaways, and as many images as you can cram onto the cards in your cameras. Also gastro and scammed credit cards, so beware.

Cameras? You're going to take three - one for just happy snaps, one for serious work, and one for insurance in case the others fail. This will involve taking three chargers and leads and an enormously complex plastic plug that almost fits into continental light sockets. You will lose two of the chargers and one of the cords, but that damned converter plug will remain with you for the next 15 years...

One thing to consider: for years you have puzzled at the instruction manuals that are packed with the cameras and at the way they use English. You have wondered whether the people who write them can actually speak English at all. Well, you're about to find out. If you have some spare time and can find a person who speaks Greek, you might take them along to the trade stand of a Chinese manufacturer who is trying to sell at a German trade show and get them to ask a technical question in their native language. It's mean fun, but it's still fun.

Note: All of the above is powered by a strong sense of jealousy on the part of this hack writer. Perhaps in two years time...

Our directors are on the ground at Photo Kina this week so see all the news on the Camera Electronic Facebook page as it rolls in!

The Influencers

Watch as Elliot Mess and his elite force of "Influencers" clean up crime and corruption on the streets of jazz-age Chicago...*

A recent posting in DP Review seems to suggest that the role of the "Influencer" in social media marketing is going to decline. Apparently it is going to get more difficult to rock up to a major manufacturer and shout out "Stand and deliver!".

I'm not surprised - with the various natural disasters and manufacturing mishaps that the photo trade is susceptible to, it is getting hard to get them to deliver anyway. That may seem cynical, but that's one of the good things about cynicism - it never disappoints.

I was drawn to the article because I currently occupy the position of "Influencer" for the shop. In winter months it becomes " Influenzer" and the sales of Codral and tissues climbs but that is another story. When I go viral, I go viral big time.

But I'm afraid I am a little sceptical about the status of "Influencer" if there is little evidence apart from barking coughs that I really do make people do things. The readers of this weblog column use computers, phones, and tablets, and are smart enough to operate them far more efficiently than I. That means they are smart enough to make up their own minds about what photo gear to use and what programs to follow. They also know what they like, and can generally achieve it without me telling them what to do.

I have my own likes and dislikes. I have used this column to bruit the things I prefer but it is not because someone has left me a Gladstone bag of money - it is because I genuinely like using certain items and programs. As for the dislikes, well, I am sensible enough to write without making too many enemies. Besides, there is always the chance that the manufacturer of the Dudoflex D will have a better idea next time and the new camera will be wonderful.

There is also the distinct possibility that I can be wrong about things.

My hands are not pretty enough to allow me to act as a product poser for goods and the pictures that appear in this column are taken by me anyway. You try to make your hands look good if you are trying to hold the camera in one of them and the product in the other. It rarely works.

So  -  the end result is that this column is reasonably impartial in its reportage. Only reasonably - I have my limits. If the Sun Star Model Car company of China wants me to plug their products and are prepared to send me a sea container of the 1:18 stuff, I am prepared to abandon all pretence to morality.

Uncle Dick

* Frank Nitti was just misunderstood...

Hot Lights A Go Go

What is the appeal of the hot light? What? How can anybody love a lighting system that makes a studio hotter in January? That needs specially-ventilated light shapers to work. That makes the metal snoots so hot they smell like the grille at Alfred's Kitchen? What is the deal with hot lights?

Well it is June and the weather is getting colder, and if you are in a studio right now the constant light can be a bit of comfort. It is not as good as a reverse-cycle Fujitsu set to 27º but it goes a little way to heating the place. And the metal snoot? Well, you can heat that to welding temperature with the modelling light of at the average mono block anyway - learn to direct the head of the light by using the handle at the back instead of grabbing the light modifier at the front.

The real deal with the hot/constant light is that you can see what you get. If you are training students to see what their lighting is actually doing, or if you yourself find the leap of faith between a modelling light and the end result is a little too far to make, then the constant light is the answer. It pours out through whatever modifier you choose exactly as it is. You change your ISO and white balance to match the output - about 3200º to 4000º Kelvin - and your camera is happy.

There is the fact that other sources of illumination will also make themselves felt in the final exposure...much more so than with the fast impulse and brightness level of the electronic flash...and you may have to take them into account. Hot lights work best in a darkened studio.

But here is the delightful kicker - continuous lighting is perfect for videos. If you choose a set of lights that have no noise associated with them, you can film and record sound at the same time with no interference. Even with the lights that do have some sound - they may have a slight buzz from the internal transformers or whirr from cooling fans - it is generally kept down to such a low level that professional microphones can be positioned to ignore it.

Constant light sources can be large halogen lamps, incandescent lamps, fluorescent tubes, large LED panels, and banks of smaller LED lights. In some cases the housings are fitted with dimmers or rheostats that allow you to vary the brightness of the light without changing the basic white balance. Or there are arrangements in the multiple panels to turn on and off different portions of the bank.

Note that I may have inadvertently led you astray...and that is a pun...because the LED panels can run even cooler than strobe lights while maintaining a daylight balance. The nice thing about many LED panels and large single LED lights is that they are also operable upon battery power - the ubiquitous rechargeable lithium-ion batteries can be banked up to provide full constant lighting in the field.

Camera Electronic has always had some examples of these lights - whether they are Profoto, Elinchrom,  Jin-Bei, Metz, Lume-Cube or LEDGO, there is a variety to suit most purses and light outputs, from full studio high-intensity mono blocks shooting through dedicated soft boxes to tiny banks of LEDS that attach to cell phones.

It's cooler weather now - time to come in and experiment. Video students especially welcome.
www.cameraelectronic.com.au

The Product Table Or How I Learned To Love Under-Lighting

There are very few occasions when you see light coming up from under a subject in real life; some discotheques in the 80's had light panel floors, you can see it in the classical footlights at the burlesque theatre, and when you open the hatch of hell there is a sort of a lurid glow that comes up. The effect can be quite unsettling.

It is stock in trade for Disney artists and illustrators of fantasy and science fiction when they want to make a subject look evil.

But it is also a very valid technique when you are trying to illustrate products for advertisements. In many cases the art director wants the viewer to see all parts of the subject evenly lit for either sales appeal or technical illustration. In some instances this is difficult to achieve with the classic hard/soft light or even with a light tent. No matter where you place the lights, the thing always has a shadow around the bottom bits.

Enter the light table. A support for the subject that is sturdy enough to bear the weight, but either transparent or translucent to allow light to flood up from underneath. There are several ways of doing this for small subjects:

1. The Lastolite company makes a plastic light cubicle that erects with metal rods and provides a space above and a space for a studio strobe below to flash up through the floor of the photo tent. It is big and cumbersome enough to set up to make it a semi-permanent installation, but it really does do what it purports to. I would equip it with three mono-block lights to tackle any catalog item that you could fit in the cube.

2. The dear old film light table. These are made by Metrolux in Melbourne and you can get them in A4 and A3 size. The acrylic plastic surface is about 3mm thick and will hold a considerable weight. The boxes contain a circular fluorescent light that can do an even job of illuminating the underside of the subject, but you've got to accommodate the colour temperature of this to whatever you are illuminating the top bit with. Fluorescent can be tricky...

3. The Bunnings Steel Shelf solution. Bunnings sell any number of cheap modular steel shelving systems. Think $16 per upright and $ 12 per crossbeam and you can make a good product table for $ 64. Add on either glass or acrylic for the top and you are ready to rock. You don't get the light tent or cube up the top but you can get these from our shop  - Promaster and Glanz make them all the way from 40 cm sq to 120 cm sq. Not having a light cube also allows more contrasty lighting.

It is simple to put a mono-block flash down below the table on a small Manfrotto floor stand pointing straight up. I mount an Elinchrom light there and pop a Minisoft 44 beauty dish on it. Then a bit of trial and error...or in my case trial, error, bad language, and more trial...and you are there.

The series of pictures of the 1957 Ford Skyline show the progression from no under-lighting to full effect. The last picture also shows the look of holding a fill card near the subject to throw a bit of the under-light back. In all cases there is only one other Elinchrom light with a wide reflector doing the main lighting. In other words, this is a technique that even enthusiasts with a two-light Elinchrom D-lite kit could use.

For the people who want to make catalog illustrations, this technique goes one eye-catching step above the standard light cube - those who deal in glassware and jewellery will find it particularly useful. Catch an eye - sell a product.*

Remember, Manfrotto, Elinchrom, Glanz, Promaster, Metrolux, and Lastolite products are all stocked by Camera Electronic - and you can get them through our online shop as well.

* or catch an eye and give it to the cat to play with...

PS. The model in the green light is not evil. She is a very nice person. So is the Ford Skyline.

Mousetrap

I called into the shop yesterday to place mousetraps on the toilet seats and as I was waiting for the ladies loo to be vacated, I got to chatting with one of the professional photographers who was standing at the rental counter. I noticed he was taking out a set of studio mono lights - a very good quality item.

The odd thing for me was I remember him taking out these same mono lights with various light modifiers all last year, and, I think, the year before. Weekday rentals mostly and some weekend rentals. Lotsa rentals...

At this stage of the game I am not at all certain whether or not his rental charges have equalled or surpassed the price of the lights when new. If so, I think he has sort of shot himself in the foot.

Rental of professional equipment is a wise move for many reasons - not all of them financial.

a. If you cannot afford the gear to do the job, but have enough money to rent it for a day or so, do so.

b. If someone else is paying the tab...ie. an actual client...go for it. The cost of doing it is buried in the fee you charge.

c. The gear is sound, and working, and you have the guarantee of the shop on this.

d. The gear is up to date - clients who base their buying decisions on your gear will look more favourably on you.

e. If the gear breaks down and it is not your fault, you are free of the worry of repair costs.

f. You can rent exotic stuff that you'll never need more than once in your career. No storing junk in the studio shelves.

But the whole system breaks down if you have spent more on getting it out than you get back for the job or if you find that at the end of the day you have spent far more renting than buying. Plus each rental and return is two trips into the shop from your working location - time is money. Rental is also  bond and insurance money paid out. You have to have that money tied up at each rental. And you can't take the rental stuff out of the state, either.

Now I've rented a lens or two in my time, for specific jobs. It was good, but I must say I was glad to give it back. It showed me that I did not want to buy it...and that negative was a good positive from a business angle.

So where this post is going... is to drive you to the rental counter for certain, but to get you to do some figuring...if you really like the stuff you rent, consider buying it. In some cases you might get some of the rent back in the purchase price.

The Hot Photographer

Perth's entry into autumn via a heatwave - and didn't we all just love it when it got over 40º... raised the question about what we should do ...when it gets above 40º.

As householders we should go inside, turn on the A/C, get a cold drink, and read a book - or type a weblog column. As photographers we should get get out there and capture the blazing sun, sticky asphalt, and overbearing UV. Nothing should stop us from being artists, including the car steering wheel being at welding temperature. I mean, what are oven gloves for anyway? If suffering for art is required, Perth can provide the raw material.

Well, art is all very well but artists at 40º plus are not a pretty sight. The wisest amongst them will adjourn to the darkroom to develop film or the not-so-dark room to work on their computer files. The very fortunate will disappear into the studio and decide to do something with chiaroscuro - something that doesn't use tungsten lights turned up high.

Here is where Camera Electronic come in. Lighting the studio with a lot of heat and electricity is okay in winter but summer needs a smarter solution. If you can get away with a smaller set of studio strobes, both the temperature and the cost go down. Studio flashes do have modelling lights to let you see approximately where the final illumination will go but once you know that you can turn them off and work just with the momentary flash. And fortunately the more modest mono-blocks draw very little electricity and do not heat up the  body of the flash in the stand-by mode.

I can say this with confidence, having bought one of the tiny ones myself - The 125 W/S Elinchrom RX One. I got it to serve as a hair light, and it does that job admirably when slung from a rail above the shooting area. Small, light, but with the standard Elinchrom bayonet fitting that takes all the other light modifiers I own. It even has an integral fan for hot weather.

I did not realise how useful it could be until I took it off the ceiling and put it on a boom arm over the shooting table. It is so light that it can be supported by a very simple arm, and no counterweight needed. It has an in-built radio trigger that responds to the Skyport transmitter on the camera and I need not remember to attach a separate receiver. And best of all, when the power is buttoned down from a higher setting it has an auto-dump circuit that reduces the resultant initial flash.

I have been progressively more impressed with the lower-power Elinchrom units as time goes on - the 500/500 W/S setup that was used with the film cameras gave way to a 250/250 W/S standard and now I am down to 125 W/S for individual product illustration. It means that I feel people can look at the D-lite 2 sets with as much enthusiasm as the D-Lite 4's for small studio use.

When Perth swelters, that has to be a good thing.

Elinchrom D-lite and Rx sets are available in the Camera Electronic Stirling Street shop and in the on-line inventory too. Don't forget to get some additional light shapers and some spare globes.

The Curious Case Of The Dark Grey Filter

Those of us who use cameras to take pictures in the bright noon sunlight get what we deserve - brilliant colours in the main subjects, overexposed skies, and deep shadows under overhanging objects. These overhangs can be eyebrows, noses, lips, chins, and bosoms. And that's just on cars - people are worse...

Well, it comes with the climate, and some days the climate picks people up and beats them against the lamp posts. It is different in cloudier or hazier places - if you have an atmosphere that you can stack for use later it will cut out a lot of the sun and diffuse the rest so that shadows are naturally filled in. In some cases it is a real boon to the outdoor shooter who deals with close and medium subjects. But for the Western Australian at 12:00 we need some artificial fill.

Reflectors are a good traditional idea - people can carry them, erect them. position them to advantage and bounce the ample sunlight pretty well where it is needed. Camera Electronic sell a variety of them from dinner-plate size up to Insanity-On-A-Frame size. Lastolite, Promaster, and Glanz are three brands to look for. You'll need a spare hand or two to use them to best advantage.

If you don't have a spare hand, you can fire an electronic flash from the camera position to do the fill. The business of balancing it to match or run slightly under the prevailing light is the tough part - tough even though TTL mechanisms in camera and flash take out a lot of the mathematics. But as the WA sun is bright and frequently cameras cannot go under 100 or 200 ISO, the exposures at synchronising speed frequently demand an f stop of 22 or even smaller. That's a tough ask of the average small electronic flash - you'll see professionals going the expensive step further of taking out field mono-block strobe heads to try to match or overpower old Sol.

The users of the  Fujifilm X-100 series of cameras or any others that use leaf shutters can cope better, as these cameras will synch their shutters up to 1/1000 and thus the aperture needed is wider  and the flash has a chance to supply enough light. But what of the mirror-less cameras that have focal plane shutters? 1/180 synch at the best and that means f:16 at noon.

Well, help is on the way - we mentioned a press release for a new Fujifilm flash later in the year. Re-reading the DP Review spiel says that it will have a high-speed synch that will up the speed, lower the f stop, and pump out more light as well. We can only hope that this promise is fulfilled because the chance of friendly and controlled cloud cover in WA in summer is pretty darn remote.

Note: Cheating by putting an ND8 in front of the lens and imagining that you have dropped the ISO by three stops is like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.* If the TTL circuit is activated in the flash it just thinks it has to pump out three more stops of light and you've adjusted nothing. The circus trick only works if you have a manual flash out there or one of the old film types that depends upon its own thyristor to quench. Whether you do it or not depends:

1. Upon whether you own an old pre-digital flash or one of the new ones that will avoid TTL.
2. Upon the amount of tootling and fiddling you are prepared to do to add more light into the fill. Consider the fact that even the most basic image editing programs allow you to boost shadow exposure...
3. Whether you can be bothered to stand there and do the photographic version of high-school algebra before every shot. I know people who do, and do it gladly, but then I know some pretty random people...Hey, Guys...

And a sop to the management. Guys and gals, you CAN buy Profoto and Elinchrom units that will pump out more light than you can use. All it needs is money, and the gear is easy to use. If you want to do this lighting you need this gear. Come in and talk to Dom or Carlos. They know, you know. Also see our on-line shop.

* And I am prepared to admit that I tried it. Hell, I tried sea slug at a Chinese banquet and lived. How much dumber could anything be...?

Spotlight On Value - Elinchrom

Oyez Oyez Oyez. All ye who have Elinchrom studio strobe kits draw night and give heed.

Sometimes you need to draw attention to a studio subject in no uncertain terms. Painting them with fluoro orange and suspending them from the ceiling can do it but required more of a supporting structure than you may be able to manage - at least in the average living room. Bedroom, maybe, but...

A better ruse is to spotlight the subject - and the spotlight is something of a rarity these days. You can still get the hot light variety - go google up Mole-Richardson and marvel at the 20th century appearance of the light unit and the 22nd century appearance of the price. Hollywood might have been cheap but it was never inexpensive.

For those using Elinchrom studio lights there is a better way - the Mini Spot Lite attachment. It bayonets right on there like all the other light modifiers do. And then you get to play a lot more with it than you do with the standard bowl reflectors or grids. The Mini Spot Lite has an optical system built in.

The central tube of the Mini Spot has a focussing lens  - it is slid back and forth manually but can be locked into place with a thumb screw. It literally focuses the light of the flash to a certain plane out in front of the strobe - the same way a slide projector focuses upon a screen. It can focus plain light for a small round spot, or...

Or you can interpose a diaphragm in the correct optical point in the light path and have the Mini Spot project an image of that diaphragm. The gate is loaded with a two-part filter holder that sandwiches a circular plate in position. Elinchrom provide metal plates with some fun patterns laser-cut into them. There are two window patterns, a tree pattern, and a plain spot. You can easily cut additional diaphragms in whatever pattern you require - I made stars, crescents, and reverse spots myself. Your limited only by your imagination.

If you project the spot onto a backdrop you can give  a Hollywood feel to a set. You can project pattens on people. You can put moons and suns in the sky. If Hurrell could do it...you can.

Lights. Camera. Action.

Closing The Barn Doors Before The Lightning Bolts - Elinchrom

Users of Elinchrom studio flash units please draw up a chair and sit down - this one is for you. Visitors who use other systems may sit in and pick as much out of it as they can.

I used to use as much light in a studio to take picture as I possibly could. Pushing the sliders up to the top on the Elinchrm EL 500  and 250 units was common and when they went off it looked like Alamagordo. I got up to 5 Elinchrom heads and had to start wearing a Royal Navy flash hood and gloves before pressing the trigger. Floor tiles were buckling from the heat...

This was in the days of trying to shoot time-expired X-ray film as sheet film with f stops in the 128 region. Please don't ask me why in case I figure out an answer...

Nowadays with the Fujifilm cameras and their ability to do jpegs to order, I rarely even use two of the 250 w/s. heads, and when I do I am very economical with the light. It passes through a number of mazes before it gets to the model and after that I do my best to scoop it up again and feed it back into the electricity grid.

The standard 21 cm reflector is the one that lets me employ the barn doors. Elinchrom have made the barn door holder into a dual-use device. You can put on barn doors of various types - and you can put them on all four sided of the holder if you want to - and you can utilise the holder as a way of adding honeycomb grids or gels to the light at the same time.

I reserve the honeycombs for the 18cm reflectors but have made up a varied set of gels from Lee filter material - the heat resistant variety - to add spice to the glamour girl pictures. The same sliding rails that support my home-made gel holders are the place where the Elinchrom-made honeycombs slide in.

Do the barn doors completely trap the light? No - they never do, no matter which brand you get. there always has to be a place with standard barn doors where the two elements meet and it is never light-tight. However, , when you need to shield the backdrop or other elements of the scene from the blast of the strobe it is certainly possible to flag off the light with Foam Core board or matt board attached to the metal barn doors. I have a box full of varied terry clips to do this and as long as the flag does not need to be too big it works a treat. If you need a full size board as a flag you are better off using a Manfrotto grip designed for the purpose and positioning it with a separate light stand.

And occasionally you need an assistant standing on one foot with both arms in the air and a strained look on their face to absorb the light. Disregard their language as they are under stress...

Generic Studio Equipment vs The Well-Known Brands

We have a great deal of studio equipment here at the shop - lights, stands, backdrop materials, clamps, accessories, etc. Some are very well-known brands - Manfrotto, Profoto, Elinchrom, et al. Some are surprises - Kupo, JinBei, and Plain White Box.

With the former you can get quite detailed catalogs, both in print and on-line. There are always new things coming out and catalogues need to change to reflect this - some are on the ball, like Manfrotto, and some are tardy. If in doubt, try to trace it on the web - despite the Chase-Me-Charlie nature of some internet research, there are good companies out there.

If you are contemplating the big part of the studio - the lights - you need to think ahead. You might start with a small space and small ambitions but find that your scope widens and the space you need to light gets bigger. When you essay to go bigger, the power you need from your flashes grows exponentially. Plan ahead so that you have some reserve now - for later.

Also plan what sort of light modifiers you'll use. The big makers make accessories for everything so you can start out with basics and gear-up as you find a need. Some of he no-name makers do not have this variety, and you can run out of choices early.

Likewise you may find that your use of a set of lights gets to be heavier and heavier as you discover how to light. If the set you start out with is a just-barely-makes-it choice based upon price, you can find reliability issues when you do regular work.

The same might be said of background stands and other structural equipment, but oddly enough this is not quite so critical. You can construct an entire studio with professional-quality structures and use the stuff for decades. But you can also make some of he lighter structures yourself out of lighter grade components and find that you get a good long time out of it. It all depends on how often you decide to strike a set and rebuild it elsewhere.

Likewise there is the fact that one simple casting or machined part may be as good as another if the engineering is simple enough. Sometimes cheap enough is good enough.

And remember that there is always Mr. Bunnings who does pine timber, welding clamps, and sheets of Laminex. If you can have the strength of character to visit the local store without necessarily buying a new Makita router or a sausage in a bun,...a difficult task in many cases...you can find a whole raft of helpful bits.

The Magic Healing Spell - And The Radio Trigger

The magic healing spell for photographers is: " If I put it away carefully, it will be better in the morning...". You say this spell whenever a piece of equipment falters. Then you tuck it away until you really really need it, and when you take it out again...it fails completely.

Whereupon you say other magic words. Short words, but emphatic...

Yesterday in the studio. The radio trigger. The old dodgy radio trigger. The old dodgy, it will be good for one more time, radio trigger. The I need it badly to work this one more time because I forgot my new radio trigger back home, radio trigger...

You've guessed where this is going.

Thank Heaven and Mr. Elinchrom that each of their studio monoblocks has an in-built IR trigger cell - and that you can put a Fujifilm EF 42 flash on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and swivel it around to point at the back wall and turn it down to 1/32 power. Not enough to foul up the lighting scheme but powerful enough to trigger the monoblocks.

I am ashamed that I forgot the new radio trigger - also from Elinchrom - but I am proud that I made the lash-up work. I hope I have learned my lesson.

When Power Is Never Enough Or Far Too Much...

A client called today with an interesting studio problem. She has been thinking about it, experimenting, and doing the science correctly, so I learned something.

She shoots in a small space. She wants to do work at a wide aperture - wider than f:4. Even with one single light from her 400 w/s set and her camera set to a very low ISO, she still has too much light for the subjects.

She's tried the temporary dodge of covering the front of a softbox with a grey chiffon, but this contributes an unwanted colour cast. Basically she just has too much light.

Tempting to trade it in and get lower power, but she may have larger premises one day or be taking photos of big groups out in big halls...so keeping the power is good too.

The best solution would seem to be the Lee company and their theatrical gel material. It comes in large rolls and can be had with either clear colours or clear grey or translucent finish to drop even more light.

I hope she tries it and can report results. There are a lot of people who might be in her predicament - if the Lee material works I'll report it on this blog.

Note: I shoot studio too, but sometimes need to have all the power I can get for tiny apertures. Different subjects, different vision.

To Strobe Or Not To Strobe - That Is The Question

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of trying to photograph a black cat in a coal-hole by purchasing a lens that looks like it should be on the front of a spy satellite or to take arms and buy a flash kit and actually see what it is that the camera is pointed at...

Hamlet, omlette, or roulette aside, I vote for the flash. I am just not sure which I prefer - mains powered kit or portable speed lights. I've tried both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

To clear one thing up at the start - if you are starting out afresh without the comfort of 40 years of gear acquisition filling your closet...or hanging round your neck like a plastic and aluminium millstone...the cost is going to be remarkably the same. An entry-level strobist kit is very close to the price of an entry-level studio kit. The chief difference between the two is the power supply and whether you'll want modelling lights.

The strobist kit comprises two lightweight light stands, two umbrellas and appropriate holders, and a carry bag. You'll need to add two speed lights and a wireless radio command kit to this, plus two sets of one-use lithium AA batteries.

The entry-level Elinchrom set contains two stands, two strobe heads, two soft boxes, and an in-built radio command set. You'll want to add a long extension cord and powerboard from Bunnings

In both cases we're talking about $ 1000 new stock.

The strobist kit is neat to transport - one case - but you'll still need to bunk the flashes in your camera bag. The Elinchrom comes in two cases that hold everything - plus you need to carry your camera case.

Advantages of the strobist? No need for an AC mains outlet nearby - no power cord on the floor. Disadvantages? No modelling light - limited light modifiers. Many batteries to remember. Markedly slower to recharge between shots.

Advantages of the Elinchrom? More light, faster recharge, unlimited number of shots. Neater integration of package - more light modifiers available. Modelling lights. Disadvantages? Gotta have an AC mains power point available. Two power cords on the floor.

For me - with all the stuff I need sitting on the shelves in the studio or at home - it revolves around the AC mains outlet and the distance I'll have to haul the gear from the car to the shooting venue. Short distance and power available means the studio strobes go out for a job - no powerpoint or a long walk to the venue means the speed lights.

Heading photo - Princess Fee at the Pseudoskirt rehearsal. The skirt of power! And the socks of polishing the floor!

Letter To The Camera Designers - The Wireless Trigger

Dear Camera Designers,

Thank you for the new features on my camera. I appreciate the Automatic setting, the Intelligent Automatic setting, and the Disturbingly Prescient setting. Last night my camera got out of its bag, went down the street, and took a picture of the showers at the Nurse's Quarters all by itself. Tonight I am deadlocking the door.

Thank you also for the smile recognition feature, though I must admit that mine seems to have died - I turned it on at it to the last family picnic and the camera refused to fire.

The little pictogram in the special settings menu is my favourite - the one that has the cocktail glass. I look at it fondly every afternoon about 5:00. I feel you have come to understand me.

Now that we have these ideas realised, I would like to suggest a further improvement in your design - the provision of a small and effective wireless flash trigger in the accessory battery grips of your DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

Already one manufacturer has pursued this in red-and-white terms for one model of their DSLR. They have provided a wireless link to their high-end speed light - thus leapfrogging aftermarket units stuck onto the top of the hit shoe. I would like all of you to consider the next step - come to an industry agreement with one of the professional flash system manufacturers: Bow---s, Elin----m, Pro---o, or whoever - and put a transmitter for their STUDIO flash into a handgrip that bolts under the camera.

This is a good place - you can combine it with a spare battery if there is enough room, but if not you can at least link it to a shutter button and fire the studio strobes in synch - without having a big 'ol box and a rubber antenna waggling away on top of the pentaprism. Doesn't have to broadcast far in a studio and shouldn't take more power than a wifi connection.

Come to think of it...would a little firmware fiddling with the wifi do it? If there was a receiver module that you could plug into the studio strobe dedicated to your camera's wifi signal and just go with that? Wish I knew...but as camera designers and masters of electronics, I am sure you will consider it favourably.

Yours sincerely,

 Uncle Dick

Stand Up For Your Lights! With Kupo And Promaster!

Studio light stands come in many sizes but only two types; too flimsy or too massive.

The former are usually cheaper than the latter but you tend to spend more money on them - they fail early and drop your expensive lights or backdrops onto the studio floor. Sometimes they drop your expensive lights or backdrops onto your even-more-expensive studio models and clients.

It is wise to remember the old studio maxim: Be prepared to either light carefully or to light out...for Queensland.

The too massive ones will not collapse on the customers nearly as often, but will take their toll when you try to move them up and down stairs. Chiropractors and physios love massive equipment, particularly if it has no handles or wheels to move it around. It is good business...

All the above said, consider the middle road for studio light stands - the "C"stand. It is a large and heavy device that has a standard 1'2" spigot on top, about 2.5 metres of height, and a set of three metal legs that can be splayed out at 120º each to secure it. The legs are different lengths, but finish up able to hold the central shaft upright - whilst tucking into the corner of the studio.

The central shaft unplugs from the legs for storage and handling.

You can get the stands in black or polished silver. The former is a help when you want to avoid unwanted reflections in a dark studio, but the latter is easier to avoid running into in that same studio. Walk into a lamp post at full-stride on the street and see what I mean.

Some stands are available with an adjustable boom arm that can hold a pretty substantial head and light shaper on the end. This can be the way to do product down-lighting when you want the effect to come from directly over the subject but do not have overhead suspension for the lights. Just suspend it over the set like a building crane.

Kupo and Promaster both make "C" stands that are well worth considering for your studio - you may not want to replace all your folders with them but there should be a space for at least one in the lighting setup.

Wireless Connections VS Connectionless Wires - Hahnel et al.

A general rule of military operations is to keep things as simple as possible - if there is less to go wrong less will go wrong. It will still go wrong, mind, but the area that you'll need to fix will be smaller.

For years I have suggested this to people who want to fire flash guns somewhere other than on the hot shoe of the camera. The choices have been:

1. PC cable from the camera to the flash gun. PC Socket or hit shoe adapter.
2. Infrared transmitter on the top of the camera and infrared receiver in the flash gun.
3. Infrared code from the on-camera flash and infrared receiver in the flash gun.
4. Radio transmitter on top of the camera and radio receiver into which the flash gun plugs.
5. Radio transmitter built into the camera and radio receiver built into the flash gun.

Old hands will recognise the proprietary system their camera operates on - some Nikon cameras  will work with No.3 and the Canon EOS 5D Mk III will do the No.5 with the appropriate flash gun. These people are catered for so they can go to the coffee shop now and wait.

The rest of us have to choose a system that will be simplest and most reliable for our circumstances:

1. If you are in a studio that has fixed lights and camera - and there are such things - and you can route a PC cord to all the lights, then do so. As long as you are not going to clothesline yourself with the wire you have a foolproof hard-wired connection.

2. If you are always moving about your studio in the half-dark and the lights are also being shifted, opt for an IR or radio trigger and make your life easier and safer.

3. If you are going to shoot outside with the flash gun at variable distances and positions choose a radio system. The IR might work but might be blinded and/or intermittent in bright sunshine.

4. If you are faced with the choice of using a system that gives a go/no go signal to the flash gun or one that has a radio frequency TTL conversation going on between the camera and the flash gun, consider whether TTL is going to be absolutely necessary.

The price you pay for it is extra complexity and increased battery usage - but sometimes the extra control that you can exercise from the camera position is worth it.

It will be larger and pricier than the go/no go wireless version.

Note: for any of the electrical systems take note of the battery requirements - opt for the ones that use commonly-available batteries. ALWAYS carry spare batteries - reliability of these systems is fine if there is enough voltage.

If you can do what you want to do without flash or with a folding reflector then you have eliminated one more complexity. Mind you, ask the photo assistant who is tasked with holding a 5' x 6' reflector at the beach when the sea breeze picks up what they think of your decision....

Too Much Of A Good Thing - Elinchrom and Fujifilm

I was shooting pictures yesterday of the flight of the Spokane Sun God over the Umgawa waterhole in Zumba and ran into a problem that is rare - too much sunlight. And I had foolishly not equipped myself to deal with it.

The problem was that I did not want to have the waterhole in sharp focus as the Buhl sesquiplane passed over it - just a little out of focus so as not to scare the elephants out of the waterhole. The aircraft was going to have to pass fairly low to have the waterhole appear large underneath it and the depth of field of the lens at small aperture meant that the elephants were going to be in sharp focus.

There was too much light for this - the lowest ISO that the Fujifilm X-E2 goes with a good dynamic range is ISO 200. I would have been forced to use f:16. I really wanted f:2.8.

Had I been wise, I would have employed the Fujifilm X-100, 100s, or 100t because these have an inbuilt switchable 3X ND filter. Or I could have put a three stop ND filter on the 35mm lens that was used on the X-E2. Then the shot could have been done in one. As it is I made multiple shots of the plane and waterhole and made sure that the latter was very deliberately de-focused. It looked fine in the composite, and the elephants did not stampede.

There is more need for this sort of thing than we suspect - the landscape worker who wants to emphasise a foreground by going to f:2.8 or wider would like to focus on the main subject and let shallow depth of field make it pop. The shooter who wants to make moving parts of the scene blur out and needs to have  long shutter speed to do it.

These are the natural customers for he ND filter - of course there is also the specialised landscape shot that also needs a graduated ND filter, but that's another tale. The full ND is available in square Lee or Cokin, or any number of round filters of different diameters. Power can be as weak as one stop or as strong as ten stops.

It is a useful accessory for most camera bags - and I'm going to make sure I have one of the  3-stop variety in place next time.

* Note: it was necessary to set the sun back another 5 metres to get the shot of the waterhole in mid-morning. The dawn shot was easier because the light is lower and more orange. Elinchrom make a nice powerful sun, but sometimes it is too much.

Some Flashy Deals With Elinchrom

I love writing advertising copy for this place. I get to use all the corny old tabloid headlines as they are appropriate to the products advertised. As yet, I have not been able to incorporate WAR ENDS! in 100-point black bold at the top of the sheet, but I am still hopeful...

Coming away from that, here's good news for anyone contemplating some studio or portable flash to give them a little more oomph than speedlights...Elinchrom has a series of deals for January and February that will put money back in you pocket and new gear in your hands.

We've just gotten the tear sheet for the following:

1. Purchase any Ranger Quadra Lithium-ion 2-head set and get a $ 500 cashback from Elinchrom.

2. Purchase any Ranger Quadra Lithium -ion 1-head set and get $ 300 cashback from Elinchrom.

3. Purchase a bundle offer with ELC 500 or 1000 set and get a free 44cm beauty dish with dedicated grid.

4. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX 4 To Go set and get a free Spyder 4 Pro.

5. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX 4 To Go set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and a SpyderLensCal.

6. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX One To Go 3-head set and get a free Spyder 4 Pro.

7. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX One To Go 3-head set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and SpyderLensCal.

8. Purchase a bundle offer with the BRX 500/500 To Go set and get a free Spyder 4 pro.

9. Purchase a bundle offer with the BRX 500/500 To Go set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and a SpyderLensCal.

All of these things work good in themselves and the combinations of them is even better. Hop in for your chop.

Getting A Good Signal - Flash Triggers For Right Now

I'm proud to say that I was using a radio-link flash trigger in my studio 20 years ago. Prior to that I was using a black cable strung between the Elinchrom lights and the camera stand - I was using it to clothesline myself in the dark.

I never managed to pull over an entire light or camera stand with this but I did manage to wrench a PC socket loose from a DSLR. There was language...

The radio link I purchased to prevent this sort of thing happening is fairly big and crude. It takes two different sets of batteries and is large enough to obscure the shutter speed dial of my mirror-less camera when plugged onto the hot shoe. Last Sunday it served me notice that the time had come to think of a new one. The sequence of events was interesting - see if this sort of thing happens to you - you might be in the same boat as I.

Shooting away... after about 15 minutes, the shutter fired but the flash didn't. The open flash button on the radio sender lit up but nothing else happened. Then it would come good for a couple of shots.

Then one shot came along had a perfectly exposed top with a dark black bottom, and the following shot had even more dark further up the frame. Finally one frame was entirely black, even though the flash had fired...

At this point of time I had to wonder if the camera synch had packed up. I wound back the shutter speed to 1/4 second, fired, and got good exposure. Advancing up the shutter speeds toward the nominal top synch speed of 1/180 sec was fine until I got to 1/180 - the blackness crept back... to a different extent.

Out with the hot-shoe block and the dreaded old wire synch cord. Everything synched perfectly from 1 sec on up to 1/180 sec as per normal. The conclusion I drew is that the twenty-year old radio trigger set is developing intermittent flaws in both timing and contact. It is time to look at a Pocketwizard, Promaster, Hahnel, or Elinchrom radio trigger set. They work pretty well, and are a darn sight smaller than the current devices.

I don't think I could face the PC cord again. Not with my face...